Scrutinising the final judging role in assessment of practicum in early childhood initial teacher education in New Zealand

Practicum is the cornerstone of teacher education. Triadic assessment of practicum is an established model in early childhood initial teacher education in New Zealand. Based on a phenomenographic study on assessment of practicum, this paper presents a new perspective on triadic assessment. Interview data are collected from 35 participants (20 associate teachers, 5 visiting lecturers, 10 student teachers) to obtain a specimen of collective conceptions of key stakeholders about triadic assessment. The analysis reveals three sets of logically related categories of conceptions (outcome spaces) that denote the tensions around the final judging role in assessment of practicum, in particular, visiting lecturers' scheduled observation. Based on the findings from this study, we contemplate some significant modifications to the triadic assessment model which calls in question visiting lecturers' final judging role in assessment of practicum. [Author abstract]